Week in Review (January 23 - January 29)

Tuesday (18,113 steps) - Work in the office. Lots of treadmill desk. Got to finish setting up my new file area since our physical file room is being demolished!! Hard to believe file rooms have become a thing of the past! At least for everyone except my estate attorney...

Took Olive for a walk when I got home.

Wednesday (20,801 steps) - Work in the office. Treadmill desk miles and did a Peloton ride at lunch. I wasn't planning on working hard, so I hadn't even changed into athletic clothes. Kinda backfired as I got really sweaty. Heather was still in town for work, so we met up for a quick beer before she had to head to the airport. 

Thursday (16,475 steps) - Work from home. Did an easy run with strides. I say "easy" because I took it pretty easy. Also, it was warm and I was happy to wear shorts! Took Olive for a walk at lunch, skipping the lake area because I knew it would be muddy.

Friday (19,643 steps) - Actually went to Wash Park and Stella's for the first time in a while and we had a big group - even though it was snowing. Treadmill desk and a busy day at work. Took Olive for a walk when we got home from happy hour.

Saturday (31,999 steps) - Had a long run to do but wanted to be done early and couldn't think of somewhere "fun" to go. We ended up going to Central Park so that we could run with Runners Edge. I've done this route before and it's not amazing. Still not amazing, but it was nice to run with friends. Plus, we also saw a pterodactyl nest:

And a weird painted sculpture. 

We went to Panera with Janet and Pete to get some food. I got the grilled cheese like I've always gotten in the past and was really disappointed with the size and taste. Just not the same as it used to be. Headed down the street to Station 26 for a beer and to register for Ghost Train! 

We both were able to get registered before it sold out - which happened in less than 45 minutes - pretty crazy. The beer wasn't very good, so we left to go home and walk Olive and then went to 4 Noses.

Sunday (15,327 steps) - Slept in a bit. Took Olive for a walk at the lake - the weather was sooo nice!

Had an hour run on schedule, and we couldn't decide where to go. Finally picked Rocky Flats, but on the drive there, I wondered if we could find the trail head Ariel has run from before. We managed to find it without too much trouble. WOW IS THIS SECTION SO MUCH HILLIER AND TECHNICAL! The north side you MAYBE get 100' of gain, whereas the south side we were about 400! Lots more walking than planned, some of these hills were really steep and rocky!

With that said, in the event we need to train for a race in Arizona again, we have the perfect rocky place to train. We went to 4 Noses, then spent the evening wondering where the weekend went. Watched a movie and look how close Olive and Batman got!

Monday (23,197 steps) - Having slept horribly, again, I was not amused to be up early for my annual obgyn appointment. Then, the coffee maker broke, so I had to go to Dunkin to get caffeinated. I had a run on schedule and hoped with the warmer temperatures for dry trails. The south side was fine, until I got closer to the hill. I turned around about 1/3 of the way up because I didn't want to do strides in the mud. Run overall was ok, but running fast seemed hard.

Took Olive for a walk (on the mud route), and then another walk after I got off work. Read my book while Ben worked on fixing the coffee maker (which he did!)

Stats:

• 145,555 steps
• 27.02 miles run
• 30 minutes of cardio
• 0 minutes of strength

Week in Review (December 7 - December 13)

Tuesday (7,777 steps) - Work in the office. I had to leave early to pick A up at school and then take her to the doctor for her annual appointment. Pretty annoying that it wasn't on a day I was already at home, but it was one of the quickest appointments ever, and the doctor was even EARLY. I didn't even know that was a thing. I was busy enough at work that I actually had to log in when I got back home to finish up. At least Batman was adorable when keeping me company.

Wednesday (17,724 steps) - Up early to do my hour long Peloton ride before work. I just LOVE Cody. No matter how much I am not looking forward to a ride, he makes me smile, plus he usually has really good play lists.

Work in the office. Ariel and I took Pika down to Denver for the annual Runners Edge holiday light run! It is really my favorite run every year. Parking has become quite the headache, and we had to pay $12 to park in a lot. Oof. Ben met us down there.

Pika definitely started out too fast, and was wanting to be in front of the group. Luckily, in the early mile there are a TON of stoplights, so she had to slow down a bit. It was a REALLY warm evening and I was definitely overdressed.

Every year the Civic Center has the best lights (in my opinion).

Pika is a mile high!

First year the tour has had the lower part lit up!

This was a much smaller group than we have had in years past, but it was fun because we actually all stuck together the whole time. After the run we went to Amato's for a beer before heading home. It was really late by the time we left, good thing we don't do this often!

Thursday (8,133 steps) - Work from home. Pika was pretty zonked after running almost 5 miles, so she only wanted to go on a short walk. After work I met Ben at Goldspot so we could talk to Greg and NOT play trivia.

Friday (10,925 steps) - Denver's first OFFICIAL snow of the year! Not many of us were planning on walking in the morning. Imagine our surprise when we had a reporter stop us and ask for our names so that he could put our picture in the local paper! Pretty cool, since it was a record-breaking year. Full article can be found here.

Photo cred: Denver Gazette

Freaking brrr. It was a heavy and wet snow, but luckily the park gets plowed. Stella's for coffee before going into the office for work. The snow was already done by my drive in. After work Ariel and I headed to Sully's house for his annual Christmas party. It was a little weird this year since it was mostly his work friends and only a couple of runners, the only one we really knew was Andrew. The food was delicious, like always.

Saturday (30,830 steps) - Slept in because the only plan I had for running was that I wanted to finish before noon. I had 10 miles on schedule, so I figured I would just run by the house again. I felt like I had dressed warm enough for the temperature, but it was windy (again) and overcast, so I was actually pretty chilly on this one. Didn't feel great for most of this one either - wonder why I seem to be retreating into feeling more miserable again?

Showered when I got home and had lunch. As soon as my hair was dry I actually straightened my hair (I cannot believe I used to do this every day) in prep for my work holiday party. It was a smaller event this year, but it's always a good time. The food was amazing!

It turns out I don't really talk to anyone at work and Ben and I awkwardly sat at our own table for most of the night. We did at least take an awesome picture at the photo booth, haha. Ben is so weird.

We stayed a lot longer than I had intended, and it was about 11 before we got home. I haven't worn heels in YEARS, and my feet were hurting, so I took them off on the drive home. When I got out of the car I promptly dropped one on my foot. I didn't even realize I was bleeding profusely until I had walked all over the house. We had to clean blood off the couch, rug, and kitchen floor. Sigh.

Sunday (18,846 steps) - Slept in a bit later than planned, but since we had both fallen asleep on the couch only to wake up at 2 in the morning, we obviously needed it. Ben had his long run to do (he actually hired a coach to hopefully get him more consistent before WSER) and I figured what I had on deck (30 min easy run, 45 min power hike, 30 min run) would take about the same amount of time, so we headed up to Boulder. What a shock, it was windy again.

At least the way back was a tailwind, and I somehow managed to run really well. I'm glad my toe wasn't bothering me. We had to be done "early" because I had another thing to do... finally get some new tattoo work done! Sheila's son is a tattoo artist and had just opened up his new studio down in Aurora and I had an appointment at 2. We stopped to get some food beforehand, and it was DELICIOUS. Cheese enchiladas are a perfect post-run food! He got about half the work done before we decided to call it quits for the day - I have another appointment next weekend.

We stopped at Station 26 on the way home for a celebratory beer. 

Monday (14,996 steps) - Work from home. Went for a run at lunch and it was NOT great. My calves were pretty achy and then my stomach was off. I had to use the bathroom at the Simms trailhead. The way back wasn't as bad, but I still can't figure out why my heartrate stays so high when I feel like I am running "easy." After dinner we finally decorated the Christmas tree!

Stats:

• 109,231 steps
• 27.9 miles run
• 65 minutes of cardio
• 20 minutes of strength training

Week in Review (March 3 - March 9)

Tuesday (17,776 steps) - Core class during lunch. Off week for Rev Run and there was an event at Berkeley Park, so I opted to do a speed workout at the lake. 

I picked a run that had blocks of 8 minutes easy pace and 2 minutes at marathon pace and did that five times. I had planned on six, but ran out of time. I assume I did the 2 minutes MRP way too fast, but that actually felt better than running slow.

Stopped to finalize A's cookie sales, only to find out she is only a few dozen boxes away from 750 boxes, so we will be selling a few more cookies after all.
Wednesday (18,266 steps) - Upper body class during lunch. Runners Roost Boulder! When I got home from work Pika was limping, so we opted to leave her at home. We were too late to run the trail run, so Kristin, Ringo, me and A just ran the 5K(ish) road run.

Thursday (11,538 steps) - Core class during lunch. No run as Ariel had an orchestra performance.

Friday (11,126 steps) - Went to lunch with Nicole at lunch! Met Carrie at Station 26 after work to discuss initial wedding plans.

Then I met up with Ben for happy hour. For the first time, we left 4 Noses without getting beer because the on tap selection was so poor. We ended up going to Marco's for a beer and picking up pizza.
Saturday (29,251 steps) - Off week for Rev Run, so Kristin, Ariel and I headed down to Cherry Creek to run with Runners Edge. Ariel walked with Pete and I headed out with Lisa, Jill and Kristin. None of us had the map loaded into a watch and we ended up going way off course after about 4 miles. I had planned on 12 miles and ended up settling for just over 10.

We went out to breakfast with a group of people at the Original Pancake House. Delicious!!

Took Pika for a walk, then met up with Liz and James at Odd 13. We invited Greg and we all had a lovely time in the spring sunshine.

On the way home we finally checked out the new CD's Wings place - and it was delicious!
Sunday (26,957 steps) - Met up with Kristin, Lisa and Jandy to run the Morrison-Red Rocks-Dinosaur Ridge loop. I was much slower than the last time we ran, but it was fun to run with friends again.

Went over to Coda Brewing and met up with Ben and the Berkeley trail group for some beers. Dropped off cookies on the way home and then we stopped at New Image before heading home to watch the Walking Dead.

Monday (12,630 steps) - Lower body class during lunch. After work took Pika for a walk before heading to the annual HOA meeting. Exciting stuff!

Stats:

• 127,544 steps
• 29.1 miles run
• 4 gym classes